The Bristol Blog features news and information about Bristol, Connecticut.

October 17, 2013

Albert: 'Irresponsible' for Wilson to say Bristol taxes are not too high

Here are the opening and closing remarks by Republican City Council hopeful Jim Albert from last night's council debate:

Opening remarks:

Thank you for inviting me, and
thank you to my fellow candidates for wishing to serve the City of Bristol. This year’s election is about schools and
taxes. Certainly there are many other issues
facing our City and we’ll talk about a few of these shortly. But the two that get most people worked up
are school budgets and tax rates.

Chris
Wilson, the Democratic Candidate for Mayor and Chairman of the Board of
Education stated at this week’s Mayoral Debate that people in Bristol should
not feel overtaxed because we have the 50th lowest mill rate in the
state. I think that is a very
irresponsible opinion, and not what I want to hear from a person who hopes to
be my Mayor.

Taxes in
Bristol are already so high that people are moving out in growing numbers. Businesses are staying away and young people
are not coming back after graduation because they can’t find work here. I believe strongly we should NOT raise taxes
or put more money into City or Board of Education budgets until we have
eliminated waste in our current spending and made sure that what we spend on
education goes to teachers and students, not to Administrator salaries which
are significantly higher than those of our neighboring towns.

As much as I would like to give everyone
everything they ask for, I know the City must live within our means. We currently spend $3,000 a year for every
man, woman and child in the City and that is enough to meet our needs and
provide a great quality of life for us all.
We must learn to work together, be more efficient and spend our resources
more wisely, just like we do with our own personal budgets. Thank you.

Closing remarks:

Thank you again for inviting me to participate in this forum
and thank you to everyone running for office.
We all know that holding political office can be a thankless, time
consuming job that takes time away from family and friends and can subject you
and your family to personal attacks and criticism. So I want to thank all the candidates for
their passion and desire to get involved and improve our City.

The people of Bristol are good
people who, like all of us here, have been through a lot in these last few
years. They demand and deserve our
respect, our best efforts and our leadership. They demand that we work together
to build consensus and not fall into the trap we see in Hartford and Washington
of “I’m always right, you’re always wrong” partisanship and personal agendas
and ambitions that lead to division and paralysis. They demand that City workers and managers be
held responsible and accountable for how they spend taxpayer dollars. And they are turned off by people and policies
that get in the way of progress, development, innovation and grass roots efforts
to improve our quality of life.

I have no personal agenda or ax to grind, and I try not to disrespect
anyone who disagrees with me. I don’t
need anything from the City, other than a great place to live for myself, my
wife and my parents. I have decades of
leadership and management experience from my career in the military and in healthcare. And I ask the people of Bristol for their
vote to give me a chance to make a difference for all of us. Thank you.

What should Steve do if the Press closes?

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Poll results

With two polls completed now, we know that I should try to get a job as an ambassador and that most Bristol residents will get their news from the bar gossip at the American Legion hall if the Press closes.